May 30th 09

Today we spent some time working on the first day of our production Cut to the Chase. The film guys came out and we had some fun. I had to work at 5 so I was unable to go chasing with Skinner after that. He ended up getting on some cells that converged and then picked up some shear. The cell did produce a bit of a meso. Skinner got some great lightning shots. I noticed this cell had picked up at mid levels because I could see some outer structure as I was driving east. It was a great first day of the production.

Hilarious Video

Schedule

Rough Forecast Schedule (skinner and shep)

Saturday May 30th
NE Kansas, NW Missouri, SE Nebraska, SW Iowa
with Jet dipping into SE Nebraska, SW Iowa and surface low creating a boundary
Dewpoints 60-70
chances of tornadoes 10%

Sunday May 31st
Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa
with Jet dipping into Western Missouri during the day and into 12Z for NW Kansas
Dewpoints 60-65
chances of tornadoes 10%

Monday June 1st
Panhandes of TX & OK, Western OK, NE CO, Western KS, SW Nebraska
with subtropical closed low @ 300mb and mini shortwave, very weak Jet, surface low in place
Dewpoints 50-60
chances of weak tornadoes 10%

Tuesday June 2nd
Eastern CO, eastern WY, western panhandle NE
Dewpoints 50-60
with developing surface low moving into the area, Central NE showing exit region of Jet
chances of tornadoes 20%

Wednesday June 3rd
Central Nebraska, South Dakota, South Eastern CO
with shortwave across the state of NE setting up a boundary, greatest Jet entrance is western SD, NW Nebraska, eastern WY
Dewpoints 45-60
Chances of tornadoes 40%

30th - 1st Probability

It appears that Skinner and I will be chasing Day 4 through Day 6th (30th - 1st). It seems to be a good typical retrograding low setup, which we have been waiting for all spring, that dang polar Jet has just been hanging out in Canada. Now its time... RFD may take the trip with us, and possible camera guy. Good time to start filming our show.

May 26th 2009

Free Cars

Aerial Storm Chasing

To check out some Aerial pictures of a storm a friend of mine Wayne Meinhard got on a fly chase recently near Edwardsville, IL.... CLICK HERE

May 25th 2009 Cold Front

May 24th 2009

So today I was trying to decide if I wanted to go to Northeast Wyoming, I looked at the models and decided that there was pretty good wind shear in Colorado, and looking at dew points, temps, and vertical motion I thought why is there no tornado risk in Colorado, and I should chase off the Palmer and stay closer to home anyway. I went to Adams county as storms were firing, I was a little late as I had stuff to do this morning. When I got to the first storm south from Kersey North of Keensburg it already had a meso, a nose feeder cloud and a foot downdraft! Was impressive!! I was very excited at this point, and even got more excited when i turned on NOAA radio and heard an advisory that a cell in Adams county was likely to produce landspout tornadoes. I rushed west on 76 towards Denver and intercepted the second cell with an even more impressive meso! Saw a possible funnel but no tornado, apparently a trained spotter "saw" a brief touchdown, still waiting to see a pic out there.

Highlands Ranch Funnel

Missed this guy in Highlands Ranch today at 4pm
Photo by Thom Rotar, from thedenverchannel.com

May 24th 2009

May 23rd 2009

Some pics and little vid from today

Checking out the eastern plains of CO today

Going to play around in the Denver Cyclone today, maybe see if something interacts with an outflow again and maybe see myself a dinky land spout. What else would there be to do today.

What the team does during this dry spell

Video from Brandon Ivey www.thestormreport.com

A landspout yesterday, what?

Thats right, Dann Cianca was out checking out the convection yesterday and saw himself a brief landspout. Check it out here.... http://blog.bigskyconvection.com/

May 20th 2009

High Plains May 20th 2009

Today we shall see what this high plains setup has to offer, with 1500 cape, high 40 dew points, some ok wind shear and moisture convergence, hard to tell if it will be a good chase day or not. The road network is like down to 2 roads in a huge area of land. The day already started out horrible with a crappy hotel that screwed us over by charging fees and not even having internet, or fridge or microwave. Then went to a dougnut shop and they didnt have coffee or bacon, that made becca not so happy. This is after a night where we ordered the house rum with our drink and it made us feel sick. So note to self dont stay at a crappy hotel or drink house rum in Nebraska.

Friday May 15th 2009

I took my brother on his first chase, we chased an embedded supercell on a line that went through the Wichita area. A beautiful meso appeared along with up to golf ball hail, and extreme lightning. Tornado warnings stayed constant throughout most of the afternoon on this cell and shortly on one to its south. The cold front just kept choking it out however, and it eventually killed the chance of tornadoes. Was a beautiful storm, lots of green, had a classic look for a while and the hail, wind, and lightning was fun. We had a cg stirke close to the vehicle and it blew in my plexi driver side window and made me blind in my left eye for a few minutes. My brother was shocked to see such incredible lightning, and that nature could produce storms of this magnitude.

SPC went MOD! yey!

Looking to be a great day, the surface winds really picked up out of the south, the low level moisture made me smile all morning and especially since the early convection and moisture cleared out for this afternoons event. With the surface winds picking up its going to be a great chase day!!! Also seeing the models real early this morning of the Cape going up to extreme levels, we are going to have one hail of a day!! SPC went to Moderate with a 10% tornado risk, I called it out hours before.

Chase Day South Central/East KS

We are chilling in Salina KS going to chase today on this slight 5% tornado risk. I will be chasing with my brother. Now casters are Skinner and Becca. Going to keep an eye on the boundaries, there is significant cape, good moisture return, but well have to see if the surface winds back a little bit. Its foggy right now but not too cloudy so thats a good sign.

Discovery Disclosure

Unfortunately because of Disclosure agreements with Discovery I am unable to share pics and video of my experiences until a later date, after the show. You will get to see them later in the fall!

May 12th 2009

Becca and I chased some cells in Nebraska after I landed in Denver that morning, we chased a super cell that produced a tornado, unfortunately the hills and poor road network made it hard to get a visual. We saw the funnel cloud 20 min before the reported touch down. Beautiful storms though, awesome chase day.

Lucky number Seven May 10th 09

Picture this scene, we take 2 trucks and the tiv to an off road heavy forrested area with red mud dirt trails. Both trucks are outfitted to carry Imax cameras to film the Tiv off roading. We take this trail doing some shots of the tiv, and then we have to switch a mag under a tarp, 6 of us holding up the tarp in the middle of the woods and rain, watching Sean Casey change out film in the cameras mag. Sean states this is a lot of pressure, and is loading in the largest format of film availabe in the world more than anything digital. I consider myself to be lucky number seven out of everyone on the planet to be in situations like that on this team. Everyone I work with is awesome, very knowledgable, and I respect them. I wouldnt want to be anywhere else then where I was today. A sweet show, and an amazing film that Sean is doing, as well as cooperating with the largest research project on torandoes in history. What did you do today?

May 7th 2009

Today we worked on a lot of vehicle stuff. We wired the air compressor, added a latch to our back window, we bolted some compartments up on the roof, added some more stuff for the Imax camera in the back. I got lost on the way back from home depot in Golfball. Vortex 2 and Josh showed up at our hotel today, so there was a lot of filming even though theres no storm chasing today. Sean told me I did more work than some people by just getting beer and putting ice on it lol. Tomorrow I think we are going to chase around South Central Oklahoma well see. Our crew is pretty much ready to start some Imax filming now in our beautiful V8 Red Tundra. Tiv 2 just got a lot of wiring done for its sensors. Once all teams are together 130 people and 50 vehicles are going to create chaos...imagine that many vehicles and people going to gas stations, going to the bathroom, or even driving down the highway.ahhh! Time to get some sleep, sean has to have the light on so he doesnt have nighmares of getting stuck under the TIV and im sharing a room with him haha. Night yall!